If we can't even get beyond our own unhealthy lifestyles...

I'm a true believer in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Exercising, eating well and so on. There's that equation that all of us are well aware of: burn more calories than you take in and you'll lose weight. Then, once we get to our ideal size, we just need to maintain a good balance of calories and exercise and we're golden. Sounds simple enough.

I subscribe to a couple of different health-related newsletters from Consumer Reports and the Mayo Clinic and, putting the occasional new research aside, it seems the content in these newsletters is mere rehashing of the exercise more, eat less way of life. The health experts claim that's how most of us, by and large, will stay healthy. Makes sense to me.

The thing is, I'm not as healthy as I could be and I know we have a serious obesity and diabetes problem in America and other parts of the world. Unhealthy people are everywhere. But where's the breakdown?

With everything else being equal (socioeconomic status, self-esteem, genetics and the like) we get busy. Life gets in the way. We've got jobs, kids and all the other things of adulthood that we're now responsible for (and often feel woefully unprepared for, right!?). Even the people with the greatest  intentions of being healthy can't seem to maintain a healthy lifestyle. [notice how the New Year's Resolutions are fading away and gyms are thinning out now that it's February?]

I look at this issue and wonder to myself, how can we possibly expect people (management, regular employees, IT staff - whoever) to give their best to information security when these same folks struggle to assess risks related to their own bodies? Our health is all we've got. If we can't take that seriously, I'm not so sure we're ever going to get true buy-in and support for something as seemingly unimportant as information security.

Like how automobile safety has evolved over the decades, maybe things will come around and we'll start seeing truly "healthy" information security initiatives. The human mind is complex. It's a long road ahead. I remain hopeful.